Sunday, March 25, 2012

Happy Sunday everyone, hope you’re all enjoying the last of this pretty Spring weekend. I’ve been spending my time lately, working on throwing a baby show for my best friend who is expecting her first child at the end of April. I’ve never thrown a shower (or even been to one) before but it’s been really fun planning all the details of the day so far. Baby mama decided on a tea party theme. Since she doesn’t know the gender of the baby we figured we may as well just go for something “Lady” oriented. Right away my head was swirling with invite ideas involving the tea party theme. This is what I came up with.

These invites were actually super simple to make but they can be time consuming. First you need to find a teapot shape you like, I went with the one seen below. (You can always free hand this if you feel confident in your skills) Print the image out on some heavy card stock paper and cut it out carefully. Then you can easily use it to trace out the image onto the paper you’ve chosen for the actual invites. I went with three different colors of paper avoiding “pink” and “blue” as best I could.

After that, it’s pretty endless in how you can decorate it. I decided to stay simple. I used sewing thread and some ivory colored paper to make a tea bag label which read “A Baby Is Brewing!” I then glued the end of the thread to the top of the invite and attached a regular ribbon which I’d previously tied into mini bows. I also decided to glue the tea bag label in place just to keep it from getting torn off while removing the invite from the envelope. In Microsoft Paint I put together the wording for the invite (which was a mix of me googling and coming up with on the spot) and cut a decorative shape around it.

Viola, your invite is complete!:

While making these invites I wasn’t thinking too far ahead (I was stuck in a crafty DIY euphoria) One problem I encountered after I completed every invite was that these suckers were too big for every standard envelope I could find. I wasn’t willing to compromise the cuteness of the invites by getting an ugly giant manila type envelope so I rolled up my sleeves and went DIY on this task as well. This project was actually way more complicated to complete then the invites themselves.

Each card required two individual pieces of regular 8x11 craft paper to complete which is quite a bit of paper so make sure you have a lot on hand. It’s hard to see in the picture but you need to draw out all the measurements based on the size of your invite onto the paper. This will be the front of the envelope that gets addressed and stamped. Be sure to leave about a 1/2 inch gap where you can fold over the side of the envelope. When you’ve cut out the lines it should look something like this: Each side will be folded over and glued. To make the folding process easier, cut out little triangle sections at each corner as seen below:

Once it’s all cut out it’s going to look like this when the invite is place on top. You can see there is a lot of space around every part of teapot which is crucial.

Fold each corner over and make sure your invite can still sit comfortably inside the paper.

The next step is much easier. Grab that second piece of paper I told you you were going to need and cut out a rectangle shape piece that covers the three sides but leaves the top open to be folded down and sealed.

Your envelope is complete! I decided to pretty mine up a bit and use some of the ivory paper and ribbon I included on the invite to decorate the envelope.

However, I did have to then put each envelope in a velum casing just to be safe because sometimes the post off won’t accept mail with protruding ribbons on it like this because it can get caught in their machines (I realized this post hot gluing ribbon to the envelope) So if you want to avoid the headache then find some other way to decorate your envelope.

The baby shower is next week so after that I’ll share a lot more of fun projects I’ve been working on with you guys. Baby mama reads this and I don’t want to spoil too much of what’s coming. Hope this was helpful and if you have any tips, tricks or stories I’m always happy to have them shared here at Reckless Bliss!

Friday, March 23, 2012

I’ll come back and shop at these amazing shops. For now I’ll stick with snapping quick dreamy pictures outside while the security guards briskly walk towards me looking unimpressed.

*P.S. Fun fact for you, I chatted up an employee at Versace after I finished trying on diamond rings at Tiffany’s (purely for fun’s sake) and she told me that they are required to wear Versace merchandise while working however their “uniforms” are provided for them by the company. Pretty sweet perk eh? Wouldn’t want to have anything messy for lunch while working there!*

Now back to Haute Couture and my dreams of one day owning some:

Dior security guards were the most testy of the bunch about taking photos of the outside. I guess they thought I was casing the joint or something.

WORK IT GURL!

*P.S. 2nd random fun fact: When I was a teenager I named my tortoise shell cat-we found abandoned when her previous owners moved and left her behind-after Charlize.*

I met a nice girl from Wisconsin working at Coach. I asked her if she ever had any celebrities come through to shop and she excitedly told me about this one (and only) time a football player’s cousin came in. I guess if it excited her then it’s almost as good as the real thing? Sweet girl.

I have to say this was probably my favorite store to stroll through. The shoes are amazing and I can finally say I’ve seen and held the famous “Louboutin Red Soles” in my very own hands. Now on to bigger and better goals, like owning a pair!

And of course I had to go to my number one girl’s store (even though she broke my heart by cancelling her show a week before we left to see her):

LIES!!!!

Moving on:
I did some damage in this store but it was well worth it to squelch my disappointment about not seeing her live show. One thing I wished I could afford was one her watches from her fashion line “Celine Dion”:

There was a diamond encrusted one inside the store that had my name all over it. But like I said, “when I’m rich… and in Las Vegas.”

So that was my fashion overload while walking through the Vegas hotels. I’d say Cesar’s Palace definitely had the biggest selection for top notch couture. Not to mention a pretty nifty curved escalator:Do you have a fave designer that you wish you could buy even one item from their line, or even been lucky enough to already have done so?

Saturday, March 17, 2012

I’m back from Las Vegas and in my rainy Canadian hometown. I enjoyed the sun and had a blast but I’m glad to be back with my kitties and sleeping in my own bed! Vegas had tons to see but I spent a huge amount of time staring at the ceiling while I walked. Honestly, I’m pretty shocked I didn’t fall on my face or into a slot machine. I snapped some of my favorite fixtures with you guys in mind. Enjoy!:

Aren’t they stunning? It had me thinking, I wonder just how many chandeliers Vegas has total. Most people spend their time thinking about gambling and shows but I’m always more interested in the design surrounding us. Little bit dorky of me I know, but it’s about as wild as I get.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Hello my lovelies, I just wanted to let you all know I’ll be absent from Reckless Bliss for the next little while because my fella and I are taking our first vacation together ever and my very first vacation ever). About time right? Although, I’m going to miss my baby kitties and I am pretty excited to experience the “Vegas lifestyle” and take a break from regular life (not that it doesn’t have it’s fun side too).

I wanted to go to Paris for the romance so we compromised and settled on Las Vegas where they “re-create” the Parisian feel *ahem* Not quite the same thing but hey, a vacation anywhere is nothing to complain about so I’ll take it!

But fear not, I will blog again!!! I’ll be sure to take lots of pictures of my interesting travel finds and promise some fun posts to come as soon as I’m landed back safely at home.

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"I believe in manicures. I believe in primping at leisure and wearing lipstick. I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing alot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles." -Ms Audrey Hepburn

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